Ten years ago, I attended a sales training for real estate agents. The sales trainers spoke highly of the company which sponsored the training.

They were very convincing and for the first fifteen minutes of listening, I was already thinking of signing up. They told us that real estate agents can earn in a month what bank managers earn in a year. They persuaded us that signing up is a sure step to freedom from employment.

The seminar was three hours and the last thirty minutes was Q&A. I was seated at the front and one of the trainers encouraged me to ask question. And I did.

“How much have you earned from selling?”

They looked at each other. There was silence. Then the smart one answered that as trainers they were employees of the company and that they were not allowed to sell.

My curiosity got into me. I believe a bank manager earns more than an employed sales trainer. So I made a follow up question.

“Why not turn to selling your product if selling can make you earn in a month what you can earn in sales training for a year?”

One unit manager told them not to answer my question. She said that I was disrespectful to the sales trainers.

Since then, I have attended dozens of sales training where the trainers have not experienced selling the very product they wanted us to sell. They were teaching techniques and tricks that they have experienced neither failure nor success.

Have you been invited into multi-level marketing conventions?

It will not take long for you to realize that many of the company trainers do not sell and do not have downlines. I suspect many of them can’t sell too.

Sales training led by someone who can’t sell is a waste of time. Sales training based on techniques and tricks can only make a trickster out of you.

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